USA clinches at least share of 4th straight league championship

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Nearly a month later, the Patriots exchanged that for their highest of highs.

USA captured at least a share of its fourth consecutive Greater Thumb West championship here Tuesday night, rolling to a convincing 77-49 victory over the upstart Chargers.

Since that loss back in late January, the Patriots have won seven in a row. In the process, they snapped Valley Lutheran's eight-game winning streak.

"I'm excited and proud of how our guys are playing," said USA coach Mark Gainforth. "A month ago, the Valley game (a 55-50 loss) was probably the lowest point for us. Now, the win against them is probably the highest point for us. It's quite a contrast."

Indeed.

Jordan Bitzer tossed in 20 points while Steve Koch added 16 and Lance Travis 12 for the Patriots, who used their up-tempo style to force the pace from start to finish. USA led by as many as 15 in the opening quarter, pushing it out to 17 by halftime. They were never threatened afterward.

The Chargers, who have surprised everyone by contending for the league title down to the final week, can still get a piece of the big prize, but they will need help from Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port on Friday. The Lakers need to beat USA, and Valley Lutheran must knock off Bay City All Saints, for the Chargers to snare a share. Otherwise, the Patriots, who looked out of the league title picture just a few weeks ago, will carry the trophy alone.

The Chargers seemed frazzled from the start, unable to answer USA's full-court pressure defense. Valley Lutheran's standout guard Jordan Hurt tried his best to handle the press, but couldn't do it alone.

"Hurt is really their only true ball handler and we tried to keep him from taking over the game," Gainforth said. "We kept pressuring them and it kind of frustrated them."

Hurt led Valley Lutheran with 20 points. Nolan Felsing added 13  all of them in the second half  while Aaron Treiber notched eight.

Travis and Koch led a USA third-quarter charge. Koch scored seven points, and Travis added six, lifting their team to a commanding 57-34 advantage heading to the final eight minutes.

From there, USA used a mini 6-0 spurt to open the fourth quarter to put it out of reach.

"We kind of knew their tendencies, and we tried to exploit them," Gainforth said. "Really, we got a lot of easy shots by making the extra pass, and that was nice to see. That's our guys being unselfish and being aware of where the other guys are."

USA was 22-of-29 from the foul line while Valley Lutheran was 7-of-10.

Valley Lutheran actually scored the game's first two points, though the Patriots responded with a 9-0 run to quickly erase the deficit. Behind eight first-quarter points from Bitzer, and six from Travis, USA led 23-13 after one period.

USA used a 7-0 spurt to open the second quarter, highlighted by a crowd-pleasing no-look pass from Bitzer to Justin Johnson for a layup. The Chargers were held scoreless for the first 3:40 of the frame, netting just four points in the quarter. All of that led to a 34-17 halftime deficit.

"They didn't hit shots early  and they were only getting one shot," Gainforth said. "And it was good to see we could defend. All of those things kind of snowballed into 7-0 runs, 8-0 runs for us."